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The Ramblings of a Palcoholic

The Ramblings of a Palcoholic - Page 2

Recent news on Palcohol—booze in a powdered form—gets those alcoholic wheels turning, no matter how long you've been sober.

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Then there are all the candy-flavored boozey things that appeal to kids and drunks who can’t stand the real taste of booze. Boones Farm Apple Wine and Strawberry Hill in the 70s. Marshmallow and Glazed Donut flavored vodkas in the 2000’s. Vodka-infused whipped cream for the foodie crowd. Four Loko for the Jolly Rancher munching crowd. Or actual Jolly Rancher cocktails. And every homemade candy-flavored-liquor-in-a-glass concoction you can think of. Were I still drinking, my candy-booze of choice would be the Double Bubble Gum vodka, because while I may struggle to walk and chew gum at the same time, with that, I could easily drink gum. Drinky, drinky, drunky, pop!

But maybe not. I’ll admit I carried a wine skin of Boones Farm with me in junior high school, but that was a short lived romance. Real 100% dyed in the wool, down to your bones alcoholics do not waste time screwing around with baby drinks. Or alcoholic vapor. I wanted my booze straight, and strong, and long-lasting. I trained myself not to pee when I was drinking, the theory being that I paid for it, and as long as it was in my body, it was doing the job I paid it to do. Bladder and liver damage be damned, full steam ahead. We want the fastest, most potent, easiest, most direct and easily accessible method of getting booze into the belly and the bloodstream.

You know you’ve already thought to yourself, Why would anyone bother with water when you can mix vodka Palcohol with vodka?'

Enter Palcohol. Mix it with water and it’s vodka. Mix it with water and it’s rum. And I can’t stop thinking about it, how ridiculous and how miraculous. Alcohol. In powder form. Everyone says it’s a bad idea, but is it I wonder? As I tear open a packet of artificial sweetener and shake it into my tea, I picture a sugar bowl filled with Palcohol powdered rum to add to my morning tea and start the day off with a mellow. I spent a year working in an Italian restaurant sipping Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry in a teacup with a used tea bag on the saucer to fool people. While I’m pretty sure I fooled no one, I can picture myself carrying a packet of Palcohol in my purse to add to my tea, or bottled water for that quick pick me up, much the way skinny girls do with Crystal Light on the Go.

One of my first thoughts when this hit the news stream was, “Hey, this is booze you can snort and remember how much fun you had with that snorting thing?” This is the upside of alcoholic memories, most of the really bad stuff—and unfortunately some of the good stuff—happens while you’re in blackout, so voila! No pesky memory! But the company has already muddied around with the manufacturing, adding volume to the powder “so it would take more than half a cup of powder to get the equivalent of one drink up your nose.” Which is a shame, because right after thinking “I can snort that!” followed by “I can mix it with cocaine, and snort a Palcospeedball!” I thought, “Snorting booze isn’t drinking booze, so I’d still be technically sober, right?” This is the workings of an alcoholic mind at its finest. This is the working of an alcoholic mind that has not had a single drop of booze in almost 24 years.

I’m sure someone out there is already thinking of how much you’d need to inject. Needlefreaks and idiots will put just about anything in a syringe. Jackass’s Steve O was not the first person to mainline vodka. Or the last. Couldn’t one set up an IV drip of vodka much in the way one would morphine?

Why even bother with the water? Isn’t my body 98% water already? Sure, that’s my inner teenage alcoholic screaming for what is, in essence, vodka pixie stix. But sober or not, I’m still a real 100% dyed in the wool, wind up in the gutter, cirrhosis hopeful, blackout having, car losing, heartbreaking and heartbroken alcoholic with dreams of literary greatness, and Hemingway wouldn’t be caught dead drinking powdered Mojitos. But Bukowski. You bet your liver Chuck would “fortify” his boilermaker with a packet of powdered vodka. Because in the logic stream of 'if one is good two is better,' in the alcoholic quest for more of...well, just about anything, you know you’ve already thought to yourself 'Why would anyone bother with water when you can mix vodka Palcohol with vodka?'

Disclaimer: The author is not condoning the use of Palcohol in any way it's not intended, or even in any way it is. The author has spent years trying to live down bad ideas and bad decisions and is not suggesting that any of this is a good idea. The author would not know a good idea if it walked up to her in a bar, slapped her in the face, and dragged her out. Which may or may not have been the way it happened 24 years ago.

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